Johnson, Adams Lead Clark by UMass-D for First Win

Worcester, Mass. – Sophomore Chris Johnson (Amherst, Mass.) scored two goals in the fourth period, including the game winner with just 2:31 left in regulation, propelling host Clark to a dramatic, 8-7 win over visiting UMass-Dartmouth on a rain-logged Granger Field on Tuesday evening.

The win for the Cougars is their first of the season and first under head coach Jeff Cohen, who took over the reins at his alma mater in July.

Clark took its first lead of the season just 53 seconds in when graduate student Shawn Roche (Centerport, N.Y.) gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead.

That lead was short-lived however, as the Corsairs answered back with three straight goals before a Phil Winslow (Providence, R.I.) pass set up Chris Adams (Bradford, N.H.) before the first quarter ended, making the score 3-2.

A Bobby Smith goal was sandwiched around a pair of Adams scores to start the second stanza before Paul Nunes found the back of the net with less than a minute left before the half, giving the Corsairs a 5-4 halftime lead.

The third period went by without much action until Adams notched his career-high fourth goal of the game with under four minutes left in the period and Roche followed that up with his second score handing the lead back to Clark at 6-5 heading into the fourth.

Johnson started off the quarter with a score at the 8:09 mark, but Christian Roberto scored his second of the game a little more than a minute later to keep the Corsairs within a goal and Stephen Espinola knotted the score at 7-7 with his marker less than two minutes after that.

That set the stage for Johnson, who registered his sixth goal of the season and 27th of his career.

In addition to the offensive standouts, Clark got an excellent performance in net from sophomore netminder Andrew DeVito (Glastonbury, Conn.), who turned away 11 shots to pick up his first career win.

The Cougars return to the field on Saturday when they host UMass-Boston beginning at 1:00 p.m., while UMD visits Massachusetts-Maritime on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.